Go inside the world of watchmaking with the world's leading watch auction house, Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo. Each episode of The Phillips Watches Podcast features candid conversations with the makers, collectors, and visionaries behind the most important watches in the world.
– Hosted by Logan Baker
For the past decade, Phillips Watches has helped shape the conversation around collectible timepieces. We’ve seen records broken, scholarship rewritten, and new chapters of horological history unfold. Along the way, we’ve been lucky to share those stories with you through catalogues, articles, exhibitions, and conversations in person. Now, we’re taking that dialogue to a new format. Welcome to The Phillips Watches Podcast – the first watch-centric video podcast created by an auction house.
This new series is about more than individual watches or sale results. It’s about the culture, history, and future of watch collecting. It’s about the ideas and people driving the watch world forward. And it’s about inviting you behind the scenes of the conversations that shape how we understand watches today.
We’re producing the show from our Geneva headquarters – the heart of the global watch scene and the place where so many of the most important watches in the world pass through. But the conversations won’t be limited to these walls. Each episode will bring in voices from across the ecosystem: collectors and watchmakers, scholars and specialists, the people who make this community what it is.
For our very first episode, I sat down with two people who have been at the center of this story from the early days: Aurel Bacs and Alexandre Ghotbi. Together, we looked back at the first 10 years of Phillips Watches – how it all started, the risks we took, the milestones that defined our first decade, and what’s next.
When Aurel and his partner Livia left their previous roles in 2014, they didn’t set out to build a new auction department. But calls from collectors kept coming, and soon Bacs & Russo was born. Then came the call from Ed Dolman, Phillips’ former CEO, and with it the chance to do something different. “We weren’t trying to be different just for the sake of it,” Aurel told me. “We asked ourselves, as collectors, how would we like to experience an auction? What would make us feel welcome and inspired?” The answer became the blueprint for everything that followed.
The early days were fueled by passion and a bit of naïveté. We built tents in hotel parking lots, produced oversized catalogues, and poured ourselves into every detail. But that passion resonated. Collectors responded, and Phillips quickly established itself as a leader in the global auction market. From the record-setting steel Patek Philippe Ref. 5016 at Only Watch to the sale of the legendary Rolex “Bao Dai” and the stainless steel Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 (the first watch to break eight figures at auction), the first few years felt like a rocket launch.
And then came Paul Newman's "Paul Newman" Daytona – the watch that transformed not just our department but the cultural conversation around vintage watches. “It wasn’t just a commercial event,” Aurel recalled. “It was a cultural phenomenon.”
But the story of the past decade isn’t just about headline numbers. It’s also about how tastes and interests have evolved. Vintage Rolex dominated the conversation in 2015. Since then, we’ve seen a surge in appreciation for independent watchmaking and renewed interest in neo-vintage pieces from the 1980s and ’90s. Collectors are always searching for what’s next – the “sleeping treasures,” as Aurel puts it – and that constant evolution keeps this world vibrant.
That curiosity is part of why independent watchmaking has become such a powerful force. As Alex explained in our conversation, these creators don’t have massive marketing budgets or global retail networks. They rely on the strength of their ideas and the quality of their work. By bringing their watches together in exhibitions and auctions – and telling their stories – we’ve helped shine a light on some of the most innovative watchmaking of our time. Today, independents stand alongside Patek Philippe and Rolex as a third pillar of the auction market.
Looking ahead, we’re celebrating this 10-year milestone with Decade One (2015-2025), our anniversary thematic sale in November. It’s a “greatest hits” of sorts: more than 200 watches spanning two centuries, from early 19th-century masterpieces to contemporary creations. It’s a celebration of watchmaking in all its forms – and of the community that’s made this journey possible.
More than anything, that’s what this new podcast is about: community.
Phillips Watches has always been about more than transactions. We see ourselves as a mirror of the watch world, a place where collectors, watchmakers, scholars, and enthusiasts can come together. We want this podcast to be an extension of that mission – a space for open, honest, and thoughtful conversations about the watches we love and the stories they tell.
Episode 1 is available now. You can watch now on YouTube or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and subscribe to be the first to know when new episodes drop.
I hope you’ll join us as we explore the past, present, and future of watch collecting – one conversation at a time.
About Phillips In Association With Bacs & Russo
The team of specialists at PHILLIPS Watches is dedicated to an uncompromised approach to quality, transparency, and client service. Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo holds the world record for the most successful watch auction, with its Geneva Watch Auction: XIV having realized $74.5 million in 2021. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, the company sold 100% of the watches offered, a first in the industry, resulting in the highest annual total in history across all the auction houses at $227 million.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past ten years covering the watch industry from every angle. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo in early 2023 as Senior Editorial Manager, after previous roles at Hodinkee and WatchTime. Originally from Texas, he spent a decade in New York and now calls Geneva home.
Recommended Reading
The Brilliant, Handmade Ferdinand Berthoud Naissance d’Une Montre 3
10 Years of Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo: Thank You
In-Depth: The Stainless-Steel Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Ref. 1518